ABSTRACT
The history of Russian political thought is littered with cases of mistaken identities. For example, it is widely accepted among historians and philosophers that the appropriation of Hegelian thought in Russia in the nineteenth century was riddled with misunderstandings and partial, politically influenced, interpretations. Pantin’s (1996) comments on the distorted assimilation of Western liberal thought in the second half of the nineteenth century are corroborated by many other accounts. The reconstruction of the way in which Russian thinkers have incorporated Western thought into their worldview must therefore be of paramount importance to any critical appreciation of the role Western political philosophy has played and can play in Russian thought. What follows is an overview of the more recent critical assessments of Russian social and political thinkers and historians on the form and content of Russian liberalism and the ways in which it diverged from, or conformed to, Western thought.
